2021 Spotlight Gala @ Home Journal

spotlightgala@home
women will play
in reinventing the
post-COVID-19 world.
Speakers included
Lara Abrash, Chairman
and CEO of Deloitte
& Touche and Joanne
Lin, a principal at
Newark Venture
Partners. The gathering
also brought together
leaders from the
worlds of philanthropy,
art, and activism
like fayemi shakur,
Arts and Cultural
Affairs Director in the
City of Newark and
Salamishah Tillet,
Founding Director,
The New Arts Justice
Initiative at Express
Newark who shared
how art is transforming
our public square.
Later that month,
Women@NJPAC
supported the Arts
Center’s robust lineup
of social justice
programming by
hosting She Did That:
Black Women in the
Workplace, a part
of the PSEG True
“ We’re going into the future with
a new energy and a new name.
We’re still hosting fantastic events,
still fundraising, but we’re also
committed to programming, to
developing community gatherings
and engaging women around
ideas of community-building.”
Women@NJPAC supported the Arts Center’s social justice
programming by hosting She Did That: Black Women in the
Workplace, a part of the PSEG True Diversity Film Series.
— Sarah Rosen
Diversity Film Series,
which highlighted
the growing impact
of African American
women executives and
entrepreneurs — and
the barriers they face
in making their mark in
corporate America.
In May 2021, the
Women@NJPAC
Spring Luncheon
blossomed again, after
a year’s hiatus, as a
virtual event. The event
brought a talk from
iconic fashion designer
Norma Kamali, who
inspired all to age with
“purpose and power.”
Broadway’s leading
lady, Laura Benanti,
hosted the event —
and acclaimed jazz
violinist Regina Carter
performed.
June brought the
launch of Women
Leaders @ Work, a
new series of Women@
NJPAC virtual events,
co-sponsored by
Executive Women
of New Jersey, that
explored the impact
of businesswomen
who are advancing
enterprises large
and small. The first
event in the series,
focused on women
taking leadership
roles on corporate
and nonprofit
boards, challenging
the “old boys club”
of these powerful
organizations.
While Women@NJPAC
will eventually return
to hosting in-person
events, the group’s
new focus on uplifting
all women, and its
widened scope as a
programmer, are here
to stay. This evolution
is one that Women@
NJPAC Managing
Director Sarah Rosen
feels is a natural
extension of the
group’s mission.
“Women hold up half
the sky,” she says.
“We’re charged with
being multitaskers, and
women shine and rise
to the occasion, over
and over again.”
As does Women@
NJPAC.
HAIL AND FAREWELL
A leadership change at
Women@NJPAC
Of all the changes at the Arts Center over
the year, one of the most bittersweet was
the end of Marcia Wilson Brown’s tenure
as President of Women@NJPAC, after four
years leading the organization. Brown, Vice
Chancellor for External and Governmental
Relations at Rutgers-Newark, stepped down
from her Women@NJPAC post at the end
of 2020. In August 2021, Marcia also retired
from her position at Rutgers University - Newark.
“She is a unique and effective and remarkable
community leader, and she is one of a handful
of people I will turn to whenever I have a
problem I can’t figure out,” John Schreiber said,
praising Brown at the Women@NJPAC Annual
Meeting in December, the last event over
which she presided.
Executive and educator Faith Taylor became
president in January 2021. The former first
Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer
at Wyndham Worldwide, Taylor was teaching
at the Feliciano School of Business at Montclair
State University when she took on the
leadership of Women@NJPAC — and shortly
thereafter, she stepped into another new role,
as the Environmental, Social, Governance
Leader at Tesla.
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